


it happens like this

by acrookedsaint



Category: High School Musical: The Musical: The Series (TV)
Genre: F/M, Little Bit of Love, Little bit of angst, Rina - Freeform, au: what i imagine might happen, i have feelings about them okay, it's not going to happen, who knows what this is
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-14
Updated: 2019-12-14
Packaged: 2021-02-25 05:21:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,585
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21790711
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/acrookedsaint/pseuds/acrookedsaint
Summary: It happens like this: one day Ricky and Gina aren’t friends - they’ve spoken to each other maybe a total of five times, and then, out of nowhere, the next day they are.
Relationships: Ricky Bowen/Gina Porter
Comments: 29
Kudos: 245





	it happens like this

**Author's Note:**

> so this sprung out of the tomb that is my brain after hours of procrastination. but i have many, many feelings about this ship, so here you go. it's a bit of a mess, but i hope you enjoy anyway!

It happens like this: one day Ricky and Gina aren’t friends - they’ve spoken to each other maybe a total of five times, and then, out of nowhere, the next day they are. 

Ricky thinks it starts after Homecoming, when she’d left him sitting in stunned silence outside her house - all because she’d kissed him on the cheek.

He thinks about that moment a lot lately. He thinks about it too much, probably.

He remembers the look on her face when she’d told him about her home drama - he’d broken something inside of her, he’d realised pretty quickly. There had been tears forming in the corners of her eyes and Ricky had known that he’d put a foot in it somehow. He’d tried apologising, later, but it turns out you can’t say you’re sorry if you don’t know why you’re saying sorry. 

* * *

It happens like this: at the next rehearsal, she smiles, almost shyly, and gestures for him to sit down next to her. 

He does. 

They don’t talk about what happened at Homecoming, except when they do, when they talk about how sucky it is when you have to move around a lot and when you have to live through your mother leaving you without a second thought.

But they don’t go into the really deep stuff - like how sometimes Gina gets a weird look on her face, as if she’s about to cry, or how sometimes Ricky almost finds himself calling Miss Jenn ‘mum’.

* * *

It happens like this: they start hanging out. Lots. Big Red thinks it’s weird, but he likes Gina, even if she does scare him a bit. 

Ricky starts teaching her how to skate, and suffice to say, Gina’s a natural. She picks it up with ease, attributing it to her ‘dancer’s grace’.

In turn, Gina helps Ricky nail all of the choreography, helps him get each step down to the art. He finds himself actually having fun, actually _enjoying_ learning the choreography he once thought was kind of lame. 

But still, he keeps at it, keeps dancing, and Gina keeps smiling, and sometimes they forget about crying and missing their parents and simply get caught up in the moment. 

* * *

It happens like this: Miss Jenn, it turns out, is a bit of a fraud. She’s a wonderful person, Ricky knows this, even if his dad _does_ have the hots for her, but there’s always been something sketchy about her. 

But she matters to him. He hates to admit it, but this entire musical, the cast, the crew, hell, even _EJ_. They all matter to him. He has to do something. He’s already lost his parents - he can’t lose this too.

But they shoot him down, again and again. Only Gina stays, listens to him. She has that look in her eye again, like she’s about to cry. He keeps playing the guitar, doesn’t break eye contact. 

Then her eyes clear and she’s okay again. 

It’s the first time that Ricky really realises that he doesn’t like to see her sad.

They practice all night making sure that Ricky gets the moves down for the next day. He can always see her, in the corner of his eye, smiling proudly as he gets each move right. 

He hugs her afterwards, lifts her up and spins her around. She feels warm and real in his arms and Ricky almost doesn’t want to let her go. He almost wants to stay there with her forever, basking in the glow of her smile, the kind of smile that is meant only for him.

* * *

It happens like this: it ends in a fight, inevitable, he supposes, when he finds out what she’s done. 

‘You’re the one who stole Nini’s phone?’ he asks, and her eyes get that watery look, the one that tells him she’s about to cry. 

‘I did,’ she whispers, and Ricky feels angry. So angry. He feels like breaking down, crying, but he also feels like punching something. 

‘I thought I could trust you,’ he says instead, and he feels suspended. His mother used to tell him that there were only two kinds of anger - dry and wet. 

This feels different. This feels like something he should’ve seen coming but fell for anyway.

‘Don’t talk to me,’ he says shortly before he leaves. He doesn’t look at her as he goes.

He still doesn’t like seeing her sad.

* * *

It happens like this: He avoids her, she looks mopey. Ricky walks around in a state of confusion - should he forgive her or should he hold a grudge. 

He knows what he wants to do.

He just doesn’t know if it’s the right thing to do.

* * *

It happens like this: she sings in rehearsal - Nini’s out sick and Gina’s playing Gabriella opposite to Ricky’s Troy. They’re going through ‘ _When There Was Me And You_ ’. It is not good timing, not at all.

But Gina has a beautiful voice, she’s got a way of singing this song that Ricky doesn’t think anyone else truly appreciates - open and vulnerable, leaving room for doubt. 

He sings back to her, because what else can he do?

 _Cause now even I can tell that I confused my feelings with the truth, because I liked the view_.

* * *

It happens like this: she kisses him. He doesn’t know what to do about that. She’d run out of rehearsal and he’d followed, so caught up in the moment that he’d forgotten that he was angry at her. 

He’d been saying something - he’s not sure what - when she’d just leaned forward and kissed him, almost as if she’d wanted to shut him up. He’d closed his eyes, leaned in a little bit, but it was over as soon as it had begun, Gina jerking away, a look of horror coming over her face, as if she couldn’t believe what she’d just done and regretted it deeply.

She runs away. He thinks about following, but he doesn’t know what he’d say, what he’d do. He’d always been so sure. But he’s beginning to realise that he doesn’t know anything.

* * *

It happens like this: they swap places. She avoids him, he looks mopey. He hardly feels the weeks pass by - everything turns into classes and endless rehearsals and life without Gina. 

Ricky feels weird. He’s not used to being apart of something bigger than himself. All he used to have was skateboarding and Nini and Big Red. Now he has this family and this musical and he doesn’t know what he’s going to do when it’s over.

He doesn’t know what he’s going to do when he can’t see Gina everyday.

* * *

It happens like this: opening night. Ricky’s nervous. Nervous, but excited. 

He sees Gina out of the corner of her eye - she’s looking at Nini’s Gabriella costume a little wistfully. 

He takes a deep breath. It really is now or never.

‘Hi,’ he says without preamble. Now he’s definitely nervous. ‘You look great.’

It’s true. She does. 

‘Thanks,’ she whispers, but she’s avoiding his eyes again. Looking anywhere but him.

Ricky pauses. Taps his foot. Jiggles his knee. And then, the question that’s been haunting him lately. 

‘Why did you do it?’ he asks, and he knows that she knows what he’s really saying.

_Why did you kiss me? Did you mean it?_

‘Because I confused my feelings with the truth,’ Gina says, and it feels like a punch to Ricky’s gut.

‘What feelings?’ he says, even though he’s fairly sure that he knows. 

‘Romantic ones,’ she replies, looking so crestfallen, so _sad_ that Ricky wants to do something, _anything_ to cheer her up.

But he has no words. He can’t get them out of his mouth. He can’t say anything. He’s stuck.

She’s looking at him again, with her big dark eyes, looking at him like he’s worth something, like he’s worth kissing. 

He has a shot, he realises. One shot. He cannot miss or it’s all over.

 _Get your head in the game, Bowen_ , he thinks. 

And then he takes a step closer to her.

_Why were you so torn up about her ‘betrayal’?_

Gina looks up at him with wide eyes, nervous and scared. Ricky doesn’t want to hurt her. He hates that he _has_ hurt her.

_Why did you want to kiss her back?_

He curves a hand around her cheek and watches as her eyelids flutter shut. 

_You like her_.

He kisses her.

And this kiss, this kiss is like a revelation. It’s like fireworks inside his head - he can hear music, cheering. He feels lighter then he has in weeks, and all he can feel is her soft lips against his, the smell of her perfume, the way her hand curls in his hair. 

He doesn’t want it to end, but it does. Of course it does. Ricky wants to prolong this moment - not just the kiss, the musical too, but he can’t, he knows he can’t.

Instead, he takes a deep breath, squeezes Gina’s hand as Carlos yells out ‘places!’

And as he takes his position, all he can see is Gina, smiling at him, beautiful and bright.

Ricky smiles back.

* * *

It happens like this: he holds her hand during the intermission, smiles when she rests her head on his shoulder at the end of the night. 

She texts him at random intervals, always ending her messages with six red hearts. 

He likes her. Ricky Bowen likes Gina Porter. 

Gina Porter likes Ricky Bowen _back_.

He doesn’t know how it happened.

But it happened. Just like that. 


End file.
